Anderson Silva Says to Expect a ‘New’ Anderson in Rematch with Chris Weidman at UFC 168

Former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva’s longest title reign in UFC history came crashing down as a result of a well-placed left hand by Chris Weidman on July 6 at UFC 162.

The way the fight played out didn’t sit well with some people. Silva is known for his showmanship. He taunts and toys with his opponents, but on that night his antics backfired.

One of the biggest questions heading into the rematch scheduled for UFC 168 on Dec. 28 is will Silva change his style after suffering the first knockout loss in his 16-year career?

“This is my style. I’ve been working hard for a long time in the UFC. I’ve had great fights in here with the same position and the same style. I don’t change nothing,” said Silva during a recent media press conference promoting the rematch.

“I committed an error and my error was that I stopped with my feet parallel to each other, which is being fixed right now. And he took advantage of that position,” added the former titleholder.

One thing that has changed for Silva is his perspective. “You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone,” sang the glam rock band Cinderella, and those words ring true for the Brazilian superstar.

“I love what I do and I’ve always loved what I do. When I started training, I never imagined that I’d get to the point that I’m at today. I always imagined that I would hopefully be as good as my instructors and be able to teach class. I never thought that I was going to have the success that I had being the UFC champion,” explained Silva.

“I think God really helps me and teaches you all the time. I realize that I didn’t appreciate, or I didn’t value what I had. And I can tell you that now, God works in mysterious ways, and now I realize what I had and I’m going to focus to go back and get what I had,” he added.

The former top pound-for-pound fighter in the world says a “new” Anderson is going to show up at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Dec. 28.

“My training has been going well. I’m very excited to go out there and bring my belt back,” said Silva. “I have nine more fights. My focus is my rematch with Chris. The new Anderson is coming. Trust me.”

So which is it?? A “new” Anderson or the old,”I dont change nothing”… Can’t wait for this richard to get KTFO again and retire.

DB

LMAO. You’ll be waiting a LONG time!

Dj154

Na… December 28th will be here in no time.

macarrech

haters gonna hate

DB

Smh…Keep hanging on to that pipe dream of yours.

DioCarvajal

Yeah?? is Weidman bringing a gun? he even missed shots to the dudes head in THE GROUND…and his wrestling…grabbed an ankle and lost it….while silva looked bored…he killed him with boredom, thats why silva had to get his fix by risking???

Ping

You need to improve your reading skills. He stated that his style is the same, but he made a mistake in the fight and is correcting what he did wrong. He played for nearly 5 minutes letting Chris take shots at him before messing up. This fight will be like the Belfort fight with his hands up, and all business. I like Chris but he’s going to look like Rich Franklin when this fight is over

Manuel Lopez

Wishful thinking on your part. Weidman is the total package. He has very good ground game JJ, high level actually. He took Silva down easily and only lost position because he went for a high risk submission. THAT’S how confident he was. And his stand up game is being ignored or downplayed. He got power bombs as fists. Heave hands and LONG REACH. That’s TWO high ranked fighters he has knocked out: Anderson Silva and Mark Munoz. He’s young, and he is a top level wrestler. Not only that but he is mentally strong, will not get rattled and will have more confidence the second time. He was viewed as a nightmare matchup for AS in the first fight. In the second fight he will be more threatening!

DioCarvajal

Did you actually Watch the Fight (VS Silva) He missed around 20+ punches standing up?????? Power wtf???

silvas daddy

He played for 5 minutes? If you call being manhandled and pummeled the whole fight, gnp ‘d twice and ktfo, then i guess you are right,but to me it looked like silva was desperate and fighting for his life.

wtf

Well obviously u didnt pay attention to andersons g r ound game. Weidman did get a leg lock but anderson managed to defend. Also weidman inflicted no damage on the ground. Weidmans definitely a black belt in bjj but so is Anderson. A serious Silva on the feet is way better than weidman. But I give weidman the wrestling. For bjj, Anderson has a better guard and weidman has a better top game. It all comes down to how much better silvas takedown defense has gotten. But then again I still believe chael has better wrestling than weidman. Silva was able to stuff some of weidmans takedowns…as opposed to chael who was able to take silva down no problem even during the 2nd fight. And yes I know chael said weidmans chael 2.0 but chael says that stuff about all his training partners/ friends. He even said the only time he ever beat okami was when they fought…before they started training together. So in conclusion…I dont care who wins. I want Silva to retire and have either Jacare or Machida be next champ.

Ian Price

Lmao!! Good point. “I train all time. I no change nathing. But you wait, the new silva is coming. I no hespect Weidman, but I hespect Weidman. Is a fight, bro.”

Hugh Shakeshaft

Weidman will finish him again.

Ian Price

Well, he has finished every fight that he has actually trained for…

Dragon Kid

I didn’t see him finish Demian Maia

Ian Price

I think he was a late replacement for that fight. He had to cut over 30 lbs in just a couple of weeks, and he didn’t have time to prepare, really. That’s what I read, at least.

Dragon Kid

I doubt he would’ve finished Maia off. They both have the same fight styles & Maia’s got the better bjj. Don’t believe everything you read on the net!

Ian Price

Maia has a little better BJJ. But weidman has better striking and wrestling. Anyway, who knows who would have won. Maybe they’ll rematch, but only if Maia moves up.

Steve Baker

Weidman had a year layoff and 2 surgeries before the title fight, plus dealing with the aftermath of Sandy and still won.

Frank Hogan

weidman doesnt have a chance against the best boxer in the MMA, in the first fight he was playing with weidman, Look at the the Sonnen 2nd fight thats weidman in the 1st or 2nd round.

Maddawgmar

Watch the fight again, he wasn’t playing or toying or clowning. He was using a tactic to get in the head of Weidman and have him not take him down again. He didn’t like it in round 1. He used the same tactic on Forrest and found an opening, this time he got caught.

So what will happen is, Silva comes out more aggressive and gets taken down, or he clowns and finds his opening, or gets caught again. Anyway either one of these guys have a chance at winning this fight.

Lucas Freire

I would even go as far as saying one of these guys will come out with the belt!

Ping

This shows me that a lot of you guys don’t actually watch the fight but just read about it. In the first round after getting the fight back to the feet Anderson not only stuffs another takedown but lets Chris attempt a takedown against the fence and blocks that too. Laughing I might add. It became clear that Chris couldn’t get him down after the first successful takedown. It was at this point Anderson got over confident and started playing with his food, and paid the price.

Jay Mcgarrity

It’s harder to take a guy down when his back is against the cage as you can’t get any drive in your takedown. Anderson was using the fence tactically and was in takedown defense mode so obviously Weidman would have a hard time taking him down from there. That alone is not enough to say that Weidman would not be able to take Anderson down again, just an ignorant comment on your part. Anderson is a true fighter in every sense of the word and embraces the mental aspect as much as the physical. He does things to throw off his opponents and frustrate them.

Weidman will more than likely take Anderson down multiple times in the next fight if the fight goes on past the first round. Anderson is my favorite fighter to watch because you never know what he’s going to do and his style is the most entertaining in MMA IMO. I had Anderson picked to win the first fight by TKO but believe Weidman will win in the rematch. In reality this fight can go either way and anyone who doesn’t think so is just delusional.

brian

Lol. I was a wrestler for four years varsity third in state. Its easier when you can sprawl your legs outwards. Drive has nothing to do with it. You take down left or right you don’t push forward to take someone down its not football. Don’t misinform people when you’re clueless please its annoying to see.

Jay Mcgarrity

way to reply on a 2 month old post. four years of vasity and third in state, impressive. what kind of cage were you in btw? I went to state twice, placed second and third. doesn’t really mean anything unless you wrestled in college though. you can takedown turning either way or with a forward drive. A good portion of GSP’s takedowns are a strong drive and good timing, same with KOS. Way to mention the obvious, it’s easier to defend a takedown when your legs are sprawled, congrats. People have only been defending takedowns against the cage like that since Tito had the belt. Here’s one for you as well, it’s easier to knock guys out when you hit them on the chin. The temple or the back of the head works pretty well also.

In all seriousness though, just because you drive into your takedowns doesn’t mean you can’t also turn to either side to complete it. Joe Rogan has commented on the drive of top MMA wrestlers takedowns several times. I guess he is a moron as well. In wrestling, you can’t drive the same way as in MMA or you will constantly be getting reset. You probably had a cage where you wrestled though so things may have been different.

natpaukar7

I would have to disagree with you…to assume drive/momentum has nothing to do with a take down is silly…I did not wrestlebut its simple physics…momentum has its own power.

deepgrim

well with chael sonnens for example his main takedown technique is the power double where he drives straight through the fighter like a bull- he does not spin any direction, did you wrestle in a cage by the way?

silvas daddy

The only one who was eating a meal was weidman.he feasted on silvas heart

natpaukar7

I will admit I am 100% Silva fan and I see it going Silva’s way…but this is probably the most accurate analysis of the fight I’ve read. Looking at it without bias and considering Anderson’s style that is likely…never considered it before. We’ll see.

lmap

Maybe you should rewatch the second silva sonnen fight, sonnen was wiinning until silva constantl grabbed and held his shorts without being deducted a point. Weidman will win and ou will be sad.

toom

I would ddefinitely like to see Silva come out more aggressive but with weidmans takedowns it’s gonna be tough to let his hands go I would like to see Silva win but I could see it go either way

KC52

Its disappointing to see everyone jump off the silva train after one flukey loss that was Anderson’s fault. He’s mauled just about everyone the UFC has thrown at him, but because this hyped up kid catches Anderson with a perfectly placed punch all of a sudden Anderson’s a chump……….

scott

Weidman submits Silva first round. You guys are losers

The guest of guests

Weidman via Kimura.

silvas daddy

Everyone says anderson was playing with weidman but it looked to me as if silva was fighting for his life,but if you think silva played with cw, then the lesson should be learned that you dont play around with with a lion when you are a mouse.

Rocky

Drop the glam rock references. Terrible. The lyric is much older anyhow, and just belies a ridiculous personal taste in music. Let’s end the link between MMA and rock, please.

Mike Aranda

People say weidman is a good fighter ha ha even if he wins again a anderson silva he will never b. I dont think actually i kno he is not good enuf to even b in the ring with silva but all the mouths will b shut come december and silva will show the champion that he is GO SILVA!!!!